1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to altering user interface display of text strings and in particular to altering user interface display of multi-field text string objects. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to selectively displaying any field from a multi-field text string object within a user interface display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multinational companies often run information system (IS) networks which span multiple locales spread around the globe. To maximize the usefulness of such networks, operations within each country tend to run in the local language of the country. Where possible, names of abstract objects in user applications are in the local language and match the local language organization, city, or human names which the abstract objects represent. In the case of system management software, often abstract objects would represent each of a global enterprise""s local offices.
Central management of such a global network may be difficult or impossible when abstract object names utilize the local language and the local language""s underlying character set. For offices located in Egypt, abstract objects would most naturally be named in Arabic; offices in Russia would name objects utilizing the Cyrillic character set; and for offices in Japan, objects would be named in Japanese. A problem arises, however, when a enterprise""s headquarters IS staff attempts to examine these objects. The IS staff at the multinational headquarters located in the United States is unlikely to be able to read Arabic or Japanese, or even recognize Cyrillic characters.
Japanese, for example, is a logosyllabic or ideographic language which does not have an alphabet representing simple sounds, but instead has a very large character set with symbols (xe2x80x9cideographsxe2x80x9d) corresponding to concepts and objects rather than simple sounds. For instance, the Joyo Kanji List (Kanji for Daily Use) adopted for the Japanese language in 1981 includes 1945 symbols. Users unfamiliar with the Kanji characters will have difficulty identifying a particular abstract object named in Japanese, as well as difficulty even discussing such abstract objects over the telephone with an English- and Japanese-speaking counterpart.
Additionally, merely seeing an ideograph may provide no clue as to the correct meaning or pronunciation since, in Japanese, the same character may have multiple meanings or pronunciations. For instance, the character depicted in FIG. 7A may mean either xe2x80x9cWestxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cSpainxe2x80x9d; the symbol depicted in FIG. 7B may be pronounced either xe2x80x9chayashixe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9crinxe2x80x9d (or xe2x80x9clinxe2x80x9d); and the characters depicted in FIG. 7C may be pronounced xe2x80x9csuga no,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9csuga ya,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9ckan no,xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ckan ya.xe2x80x9d This circumstance is based in part on the history of the Japanese language, in which the Kanji characters were adopted from the Chinese language. Thus, for example, the xe2x80x9crinxe2x80x9d symbol depicted in FIG. 7B is On-Yomi, basically a simulation of the Chinese pronunciation when the character was imported to Japan, while xe2x80x9chayashixe2x80x9d is Kun-Yomi, a Japanese word assigned to the character which has the same meaning.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide mechanism for selectively controlling the display language of text strings in a user interface. It would further be advantageous if the mechanism permitted the user to change the display language of a user interface and edit the contents of any display field.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for s altering user interface display of text strings.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for altering user interface display of multi-field text string objects.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for selectively displaying any field from a multi-field text string object within a user interface display.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A user control is provided to selectively display and/or edit the contents of any field within a multi-field text string object having separate fields each containing a different representation of a text string (e.g., Kanji symbols, syllabary characters phonetically spelling the Kanji symbols, and latin characters phonetically spelling the Kanji symbols.). The various fields thus encapsulate identification, meaning, and pronunciation information for a single text string. A controller interface between the user control and the multi-field text string object allows methods within the user control to be performed on the multi-field text string object. Contents of the currently selected display field for the multi-string text string object are displayed, together with a selection control. The selection control may be actuated to display an ordered list of the contents of all fields within the multi-field text string object, and the current display field altered by selecting a field-from the displayed list. A user unable to recognize, understand, or pronounce a text string based on one representation of a text string may thus switch views to a different representation of the same text string familiar to the user. Contents of the currently selected display field may also be edited.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.